WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told The Post that a longtime CIA employee will allege an ongoing “deep state” conspiracy to cover up the origins of COVID-19 during a public hearing Wednesday.
The two-decade CIA veteran was detailed to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where he worked on a recently disbanded “director’s initiative group” that studied the how the pandemic started in Wuhan, China, Paul said in an interview.
“He believes that there are people still within the CIA that were trying to obscure the truth, trying to withhold documents, and he will also testify that the CIA actually were spying on his group and eavesdropping on his group,” Paul said.
It’s unclear when the CIA allegedly spied on the ODNI review group or what evidence may be presented.
The witness also is expected to testify that the CIA’s leadership in 2021 quashed an expert assessment that COVID-19 likely leaked from a Wuhan lab — resulting in the spy agency not making that finding until last year long after public interest subsided.
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“I think it was six to one that the virus, they believed, came from the lab. Their conclusion was then overridden by mid-level or senior people,” Paul said.
“At two in the morning, the conclusions of the document were changed.”
Paul did not share the man’s name and The Post was unable to verify his allegations, which the Kentucky senator summarized ahead of the hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which he chairs.
Spokespeople for the CIA and ODNI did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
“He has an impeccable record and reputation,” Paul said of the soon-to-be public figure.
“It’s hard to testify publicly from the intelligence community because they don’t take it very well. So he comes forward at great risk to his career.”
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in more than 1 million American deaths after emerging in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, where the US government helped finance risky “gain of function” research that genetically modified bat coronaviruses.
“The intelligence community is very intricately involved with this research,” Paul told The Post.
“I think that the deep state still exerts a great deal of power no matter who the president is and that the deep state is still hiding the origins of this virus.”
Paul said that he’s been frustrated in his own attempts to acquire documents about the pandemic, despite a 2023 law authorizing the declassification of records.
The congressional hearing will happen as President Trump arrives in China for the first state visit by an American leader in nearly a decade.
Paul said he doesn’t see much hope that Trump could persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to provide greater transparency into the pandemic’s origins when they meet in Beijing.
“I think that there’s very little that Chinese will ever admit to,” Paul said.
“I think at this point, they’re never going to reveal it, short of a defector that got out with evidence.”
